FACTBOX-Where is the Ferghana valley?

Powerful earthquake hits Central Asian valley

20 Jul 2011 10:57

Source: reuters // Reuters

Horses graze at a high-altitude summer pasture called Suusamyr, some 170 km (106 miles) south of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, June 17, 2011. REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov

* USGS reports 6.1 magnitude quake in Ferghana valley

* Residents report strong shaking, people on streets

* No immediate reports of casualties but buildings destroyed

(Adds quotes, details, background)

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, July 20 (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake struck Central Asia's densely populated Ferghana valley on Wednesday, shaking houses and sending residents of several Uzbek and Kyrgyz cities onto the streets in panic.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, although local residents on either side of the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan reported prolonged, violent shaking in the early hours of the morning that cracked the walls of their homes.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.1 earthquake had its epicentre 18 km (11 miles) underground some 42 km (26 miles)southwest of Ferghana, a city in the east of Uzbekistan close to the Kyrgyz border.

"Everybody was afraid. Everything was shaking," Dilaffrus Muminova, a Ferghana resident, told Reuters by telephone. "It lasted two or three minutes, if not more."

The Ferghana Valley is the most densely populated part of Central Asia, a strategic but earthquake-prone region between Russia, China and Afghanistan.

The valley is a patchwork of Soviet-era borders that cut across nationalities, leaving it prone to periodic bouts of ethnic violence. Widespread poverty has also contributed to a growing trend of radical Islam in the region.

In June 2010, more than 400 people were killed in June 2010 during several days of clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in and around Osh, the largest city in southern Kyrgyzstan. At the height of the violence, about 400,000 people fled their homes.

"God is punishing us for what we are doing," said Ismat, a resident of the Kyrgyz city of Batken, close to the Uzbek border. He declined to give his second name.

He said cracks were visible in the walls of the city's houses, although he had not seen any buildings collapse. "People were on the streets all night. There was a lot of panic."

BUILDINGS DESTROYED

The Ferghana Valley is a major centre of cotton and silk production, and the hills above are covered by walnut forests.

Another native of Ferghana, who lives in Kazakhstan, said residents of her home city had been woken by strong shaking at about 0130 local time (1930 GMT). Most people evacuated their apartment blocks and spent the night on the streets.

She told Reuters, after speaking to Ferghana residents by telephone, that people had reported a loud noise before their houses were jolted.

Local residents also reported the destruction of low-rise housing in the nearby town of Margilan, a silk production centre. "It's an old town and some of the old houses have been destroyed," she said, requesting anonymity.

Independent news agency www.uznews.net quoted an unnamed resident of Uzbek town of Khamza as saying the local hospital did not have enough room to accommodate the wounded.

Kyrgyzstan's Emergencies Ministry had dispatched a team to the region to investigate damage, said Sultanbek Mamatov, a spokesman for the ministry. Damage to an electricity sub-station had cut off power to several small towns and villages, he said.

Kadamjay, a Kyrgyz town close to the epicentre, was one of the towns affected. Local resident Seitmurad Kozhoyev said by telephone that windows had been shattered and at least one multi-storey apartment block had been badly damaged.

Abdulamid Borbiyev, a 42-year-old businessman from a nearby village, said he knew of no local victims but that he had seen a lot of damage to buildings.

In 2008, a powerful earthquake killed more than 70 people in Kyrgyzstan. In 1966, the Uzbek capital Tashkent was flattened by a 7.5 earthquake that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

Wednesday's quake was also felt in Tashkent, although there were no reports of serious damage. "Everyone got a bit of a scare," said an expatriate resident of the Uzbek capital. (Additional reporting and writing by Robin Paxton in Almaty; Editing by Jon Boyle)


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FACTBOX-Where is the Ferghana valley?

20 Jul 2011 11:14

Source: reuters // Reuters

July 20 (Reuters) - A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Central Asia's densely populated Ferghana valley on Wednesday, shaking homes and sending residents of several Uzbek and Kyrgyz cities onto the streets in panic. [ID:n LDE76J00Q ]

Here are some details on the valley and its tensions:

* FERGHANA VALLEY:

-- The densely populated Ferghana valley is largely ethnically Uzbek but is split between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The region suffered greatly from the nationalities policy of the 1930s that transformed the previously interconnected areas into something like a puzzle.

-- In general, Uzbekistan holds the valley floor, Tajikistan holds its narrow mouth and Kyrgyzstan holds the high ground around.

-- The valley mouth is narrow, but the actual valley is vast, covering 22,000 sq km (8,500 sq miles) and the Pamir and Tien Shan mountains that rise above are only dimly visible.

-- The Ferghana Valley zone includes the Osh, Jalalabad and Batken districts of Kyrgyzstan, the Andijan, Namangan and Ferghana districts of Uzbekistan and the Sogdiskaya district of Tajikistan.

-- The valley is a major centre of cotton and silk production, and the hills above are covered by walnut forests. The valley also has some oil and gas.

-- Poverty is widespread. Islamist militancy has deep roots.

* ETHNIC TENSIONS:

-- Arbitrary Soviet borders, which have stranded enclaves of Uzbeks and Tajiks in Kyrgyzstan, and Tajiks in Uzbekistan, contributed to heavy Uzbek-Kyrgyz riots in 1990.

-- Osh, capital of the south and Kyrgyzstan's second city, saw most of the clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.

-- Around 300 were killed in the Osh massacre -- sparked by land disputes -- before Moscow brought in troops to separate the warring sides.

-- In 2005, riots broke out initially in the southern town of Jalalabad as opposition activists denounced presidential election results. Osh fell to opposition control as protests swept across the country's south to demand the resignation of President Askar Akayev, a northerner.

-- The Akayev government fell on March 24, 2005. Opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev became acting president and prime minister and Akayev fled to Moscow. Bakiyev in July 2005 won a landslide victory in a presidential election described as free and fair by Western monitors.

-- More than 400 people were killed in and around Osh during several days of clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June 2010. At the height of the violence, about 400,000 people fled their homes in the region. Two months earlier, in April 2010, Bakiyev had been ousted in a violent revolt.

* ISLAMIC TENSIONS:

-- The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) that emerged from the Ferghana Valley has cooperated with the Tajik United Opposition, al Qaeda elements and the Afghan Taliban with the aim of establishing an Islamic Caliphate. It is active in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan.

-- Hizb ut-Tahrir, another group outlawed in the region, has said ideas of Islamic rule are beginning to catch on in Osh. The city has long been synonymous with a post-Soviet rise of radical Islam in the largely agrarian, cotton-growing region. There are no accurate figures on membership of the group. Some estimates put it at 8,000 in Kyrgyzstan alone. Sources: Reuters/www.unifem.org/Janes (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)